Dear Folks and 828,

I pulled control tower duty officer tonight and now that things have calmed down and there being a typewritter handy thought this would be a good time to write to you. I received all of your letters today, Elaine and Stans of Apr. 3rd, Cleda’s of Match 28th and Dad’s of Apr. 3rd and March 14th so you can see how our mail runs. It really sounded as if Greenville had alot of excitement. I miss out on everything.

Elaine I was glad to hear about all the Sigma Mu’s, I knew all of them that you mentioned, if you get the chance you might ask her about Bud Spencer, he was my roommate and the last that I knew he was with some outfit in France. Jean Kelly went into the AC the same time that I did.

I hope everything has worked out O.K. for Stan, don’t forget to write me all about his setup. I’ll be looking forward to receiving your Easter pictures.

Cleda I was glad to hear that you and Dad had gotten to see Zoe and that she is O.K. She will probably be there when you receive this letter so if she is tell her hello for me (in a loving way).

I certainly hated to hear about Ben Brown and Mervin Wise.^[1]Mervin Wise was a friend of Tom’s from Greenville. He was killed in action on April 16, 1945 while serving with the Army. Benell Brown was also a friend of Tom’s from Greenville. He was … Continue reading

Dad, I have really been seeing France these last few days. I told you about the trip to Paris and yesterday Andy and I were in Reims. Enjoyed it even if I did about get knocked down by some Frenchman in a truck. I was standing on the corner waiting for Andy when this truck couldn’t make the corner, jumped the curb, knocked a chunk out of the building besides a few water drains and ended up just grazing me after I had ma a remarkable twenty foot jump. After looking at the chunk he had taken out of the stone wall right behind where I had been standing I decided I was pretty lucky, as it was I didn’t get a scratch but a damn good scare to remember Reims by.

To continue with the more enjoyable parts of the trip – went into the cathedral and even climbed the stairs all the way to the top of the thing. It looks alot older than Notre Dame, however, I don’t know when it was built but maybe the fact that it has been shot up alittle in two wars makes it show its age more. The town is alot cleaner than most of the French towns we have seen which made it pretty nice to go to. Andy and I tried to make it back to the base that night but weren’t able to and ended up in some little town that had an eleven oclock curfew so we just waited for the M.P.s to pick us up and they got us a room in the officers hotel there. Don’t have any visions of a Palmer House or Statler but it was a place to sleep. However on my days off now I think I’ll stay in camp and forget about this sight seeing and let my feet recouperate.

Hope everything is O.K. with all of you and I certainly enjoy all of your letters. I am so sleepy I am going to have to get up and walk around to keep from going to sleep.

Love,

Tom

Dear Folks also 828-

I won’t be able to write this evening and did want to write today and tell you about my trip to Paris and also to let you know about my new address. Should get our mail through faster now.

I and three others went to Paris last Sat. and got there in the evening. Spent most of the evening getting lost and getting our hotel assignments. There wasn’t a thing open that night as the city was paying its respects to the President.^[1]President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Sun. morning we took a Red Cross motor tour through the city and saw all the sites of interest. It was really interesting and Paris hadn’t been changed hardly at all. The Cathedral of Notre Dames seemed to me the most remarkable when you consider that it was started in the year 1163 and completed in 1235. It is really very beautiful. Alot of the statues in the city were removed by the Germans to make guns out of. They have Nap. son’s coffins in the same building with Nap I now. Hitler sent it back to Paris as a present to the city from Austria where it had been and whereas before they would not return it. I would hate to open the thing as it is probably booby trapped.

In the afternoon we went to the “Folies Bergere” which you have probably heard of. I wasn’t bery impressed as a burlesque in the states is just as good. We walked all over the city and rode the subway the rest of the time, in Paris the subway is the “Metro.” It seems that Paris has been the least effected by the war as any city I’ve seen. However, there is a food shortage and we are not allowed to eat in a civilian restaurant – permitted to buy some things. However, it being Sun. none of the stores were open. Wish they had have been so I could send you all something. I have been through Reims and hope to go there again soon and do some shopping as it seemed like a nice place. I probably won’t be able to send much of anything as nothing you get is very good. At least I’ll try to get something to you from France. We had to leave early Mon. morning out of Paris on the train and it was alot nicer than the one we came up here on.

This afternoon Mort Blaisdell came over and we went out and practiced up on our .45 gun shooting. We can both stand alot more practice.

Hope all of you are OK and hope to see you soon.

With love,

Tom.

Dear Folks & 828,

Our censorship ban has been lifted alittle so can tell you alittle of what has been going on.l As you can see I have moved out of S. France. Really had it nice down there, more on the order of a vacation but that seems to be all past. Had a nice trip up and got to see alot of France. Came up on the train and followed the Rhone River a great deal of the way. It was really beautiful country and at a pretty time of year. Alot of the towns were damaged a great deal and every bridge crossing the Rhone had either been bombed by our AF or else destroyed by the Germans. Our engineers had built temporary spans at all the railroad crossings so we didn’t have to swim. Our train accommodations were pretty lousy, box cars, flat cars, and one what I guess you would call a French day coach. Road in the coach and just about froze at night. Had to live on K & C rations and it was good to get a warm C ration meal when we did finally arrive up here. The trip was might slow.

We came through Lyon and it seems to be the best city I’ve seen in France yet as it had alot of modern buildings and didn’t seem to want to have everything walled in as everyplace else was. I hope to get into Paris before so very long as I hear it is pretty nice.

We are still living in tents but the weather is getting warmer now which doesn’t make it so bad. Elaine, your hearing about the children over here was pretty near right. It is better here than I have seen it anywhere but things are still bad. They have alittle carnival in the small village near by and we have been in several times. All the little kids are around picking up cigarette butts and anything else they could find when they should be eating ice cream, pop-corn, and candy cotton. After a while you get use to seeing such things but at first it hits you pretty hard. None of them have had a chance, as when you consider how long the war has been going on this is the only life they know. I am certainly glad that our kids are coming up when they are and I think we ourselves can feel pretty lucky. Enough for now.

With love,

Tom

Sun. night
18 Mar. 45.
“In Southern France”

Dear Folks,

Just a short note to let you know my new address and that I have been moving. While in Italy I went through Naples and it is really a mass of ruins. One evening Andy and I went into Caserta where the royal palace is and where the king at one time lived. It is the only decent building I saw while in Italy. The people there are in pretty bad shape and there isn’t anything to buy that was worth having. Flew up here and came over the Anzio beachead. Italy isn’t much to brag about. It is alot nicer up here and all we did today was build a floor to our tent. There are four of us in it.

Enough for now.

Love,

Tom

P.S. Notice new address.

Dear Folks,

This will have to be another joint letter but hope you don’t mind. Besides there isn’t an awfully lot that I can say other than I am mighty glad that this boy was born in the U.S. I think about everyone feels the same way. I’ll be able to tell you more at a later date but from what I have seen so far someone has really given this country a going over.

I am enclosing alittle allied currency that we have to exchange all our American currency for, one lire is equal to 1 cent, a 100 lire bill is about like a dollar bill.

I just about froze last night. We have tents with wooden floors (the difference between officers quarter and enlisted men’s) but no stoves. I had two blankets on the bottom of the cot (canvas), two sleeping bags, one inside the other, and two more blankets on top. I wore P.J.’s and socks. They say to keep your face out of the bag, but after freezing for several hours I went down in the sack and zipped it closed. It was till cold but not so drafty. Tonight I’m wearing my flying boots and heavy flying gear. I have heard that awhile back several of the boys in one tent pulled up part of the floor and built a fire in the middle. Another night like last and I think I’ll follow suit.

Our food is pretty good and the mess building and officers club look something like something the Germans used.

There isn’t much else to say, I did get some letters from Zoe but so far that’s all. However, the mail service isn’t to certain and most of hers had been forwarded to me from Hammer.

Hope everything is OK with all of you. I’m OK and things don’t look too bad.

Love,

Tom

Dear Folks,

This letter will be for everyone because there really isn’t much sense in writing duplicate letters. lTo tell you what has been going on that’s all they would be. First of all I’d much rather be flying than rolling along in a boat, and I do mean rolling. I haven’t been sick yet and I doubt very much if I do, but I am sorry to say that there are many less fortunate than my self. Andy didn’t feel to sharp tonight before dinner but after eating he was OI. I think the best thing to do is keep active, don’t miss any meals and don’t lay in the bunk all the time. The food is good and we have pretty nice quarters. Alittle crowded but not too bad. There are six of us in one stateroom and I think we have the best deal of anyone on the ship. We have three decker beds with nice built up sides to keep you rom rolling off but they are comfortable. All the sailors on the ship say that we have had it smooth so far, however, I think they are just trying to scare us. The weather has been nice in fact I even got in alittle sun bathing this afternoon. There isn’t an awfully lot to do. They try to give each officer some sort of detail to take charge of which takes about 2 hrs. a day. The rest of the time we spend in playing cards and laying around. Bridge seems to be the main game and just about everyone knows how to play. The ships store is suppose to open tomorrow but so far there hasn’t been a chance to spend any money. I got on the boat with 43 cents in change in my pocket and still have 43 cents. At least I’m saving money.

Cleda, I’ve thought about you and your seasickness alot and I must say that you had what it took to make it down to the Canal Zone when you and Dad went down there.

Dad, how is everything at the hospital? I guess your busy season will soon be over. When do you plan on taking your vacation and are you going down to Greenville?

I guess Karen and Tom are both OK. and Elaine told Tom to hurry up and grow up so that the younger side of the Cartmell household will be able to have access to a playpen, etc.

I haven’t received any mail for sometime. I’ll probably get a nice big stack of it someday. What a day that will be, I can hardly wait.

Well there isn’t much more that I can tell you so I guess I’ll crawl back to bed, and the way this rooms rocking I do mean crawl.

Hasta La Vista –

With love,

Tom

Dear Folks, (including everyone)

I am really sorry that I haven’t written so much. I’ve tried to keep Zoe informed alittle of what was happening to me. Hope she’s been letting you know of my proceedings. As soon as we get alittle more settled down and I get alittle more times for letter writing I’ll do better by you.

There isn’t much that I can tell you other than I am in the country on the east coast anything else that I could say on the subject would be censored so I’ll save the censor the trouble of hacking up the letter by just not saying any more on that subject.

It is sort of rough in knowing just what to say. I called Zoe last night and she said she was writing to you so guess you have already been informed.

How are Karen and Tom making it? Has Tom started crawling yet? I imagine Karen is still Mothers helper.

Dad, have you been down to Greenville since I was there. If could find out what my battle jacket cost tell Zoe to pay for it.

Have you written or heard from Dr. Greer? Zoe told me she had been over and seen him and she’s to go back in 2 mo’s. I guess everything is OK.

Well I’ll close and will write again as soon as possible.

With Love,

Tom

Dear Folks, (including 828)

As you can tell by the post mark I have not been wasting much time since I last wrote. We were the first to leave. Don’t say too much about getting any letters from me because once we left Hammer our where abouts isn’t suppose to be common knowledge. You can probably tell I am writing this on a train and I don’t know yet where I’ll be able to mail it. For awhile I thought we would come through Chicago but from what I hear that’s out. Our land and overseas destination is still a long ways off. I might even be able to use some of the language I had so much trouble with in high school.^[1]Tom studied French when he was in high school. This sentence was to tell his family that he was going to France, without compromising any secrecy, or so he thought. When you receive my address you might send me Warren’t address as I might like to drop him a line.

We got all new equipment and it is really swell stuff, alot better than we have had. I called Zoe the other night from Mort’s you might ask her about it.

This thing is certainly bouncing around alot and it’s making writing very difficult. There really isn’t much more that I can say, but I did want to let you know that everything is OK and hope that everything is going fine for all of you.

Elaine, Zoe is getting you your birthday present from us. I didn’t tell her till about the 14th. I wasn’t able to get anything but thought of you on the 16th. Many happy returns.

Goodnight –

With love,

Tom.

Wed. Night

Dear Folks,

As you can no doubt see I have acquired a new secretary. (She’s worse than I am – hope you can read this because so far I can’t.)

We are trying to get ready to leave Friday morning. As I told you Zoe and Bob Clyde‘s wife are driving over in one of the boy’s car. Bob is flying over tomorrow to get hotel reservations and see what we can find out about places to stay.

Mort tore up a plane last night. He wasn’t hurt but run off the runway in the sand and tried to come back on when the front nose-wheel broke off.  The plane dropped down and caved in the nose and ruined both engines. The colonel called a meeting today and from the sound of things they are going to try to court martial and dock him part of his salary. The day before mort brought one in on one engine and made a beautiful landing.

(In Tom’s handwriting…)

Zoe just quit to go take a bath and she says hello. In case you can’t read her writing or mine either it’s because of the position.

This moving job is really getting to be a problem. We are going to ship Zoe’s trunk and I can take all my stuff with me.

I haven’t been very busy lately just working about a half a day. However, at Fresno, that will change. Most of our flying there will be at nights and we’ll also get a great deal ground school and P.T.

Say about the radio, if you can get it packed up we’ll send you our address as soon as we get to Fresno. We miss a radio an awful lot and it would be swell to have it.

We are going to send you some wedding pictures as soon as we get something to send them in. They really turned out pretty good. Also sending one of the post papers with one in it.

We both have our ration points now and the food has been plenty good. We have been eating here most of the time.

There isn’t much more to say, keep your fingers crossed for us in getting a good place to stay at Fresno. Cleda, about the cards, don’t you think we could use them anyway?

Give our loved to everyone at 828 and wish we could see you soon.

With love,

Tom + Zoe

Somewhere in Neb.

Dear Folks,

Well I am certainly going back with some wonderful memories. That couldn’t have been a better leave even if it had been planned weeks in advance. Everything at home seems to be going so well that there isn’t a thing to worry about there. Karen and Tom are both tops and I know will be a big enjoyment to all of you.

I guess you got Zoe home OK last night. Hope you weren’t too late in getting to bed. Maybe things will get settled down now and you can get back in the saddle. Cleda, here’s hoping that you get the painting and everything finished in fine style and that your moving works out to be easier than you figured on.

We are running behind time about 3 hrs. We passed the wreck about 10:00 this morning. There were still several cars off on the sides which were pretty well torn up. You remember the first section that went out at 8:45 last night. We just heard that a brake rod broke on one coach, derailed it and drug it on the ties for 4 miles before they could get the train stopped. I don’t believe anyone was hurt but I imagine everyone got shaken up alittle. That is another reason that we got held up alittle. However, from here on we should make fairly good time.

Did you go up and see Zoe’s Apt. when you took her home? This train is alot better than the one I came out on, not so dirty.

Well thanks alot for a wonderful eight day leave, and here’s hoping I get to make it again. Until then –

Love,

Tom

Hope you can read this.